Absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins, pantiliners, and incontinence pads are devices that are typically worn in the crotch region of an undergarment. These devices are designed to absorb and retain liquid and other discharges from the human body and to prevent body and clothing soiling. Sanitary napkins are a type of absorbent article worn by women in a pair of panties which is normally positioned between the wearer's legs, adjacent to the perennial area of the body. Sanitary napkins in particular with side wrapping elements, often also referred to as side flaps or wings, are disclosed in the literature and are available in the marketplace.
Generally when sanitary napkins are provided with side flaps, the side flaps extend laterally from a central absorbent means and are intended to be folded around the edges of the wearer's panties in the crotch region. The side flaps can be provided with an attachment means for either affixing them to the underside of the wearer's panties or to the opposing side flap. The side flaps are particularly effective for preventing exudates from soiling the edges of the wearer's panties.
Sanitary napkins having wings or side flaps of various types are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,687,478, entitled “Shaped Sanitary Napkin With Flaps”, U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,047, entitled “Sanitary Napkin Attachment Means”, U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,876, entitled “Sanitary Napkin” and its Re-examination Pat. No. B1 4,589,876, U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,343, entitled “Sanitary Napkin”. Sanitary napkins having wings are commonly viewed as providing good protection against soiling. Typically the side flaps are provided on the sanitary napkins by either being attached to the garment facing surface of the absorbent article or by integrally extending from the lateral side edges of the absorbent article.
Protective side flaps according to the prior art are provided such that their relaxed or predisposed position is assumed when the wings or flaps extend away from side edge of the main body portion of the absorbent article.
The side flaps are also typically folded inwards below or above the absorbent article for delivery such that a packaging can be provided to accommodate the basic width of the article without the side flaps. Tucked side flaps below the backsheet of the article which address this situation are known from PCT application PCT/US 9404926, PCT/US 9404927 and PCT/US 9404943. Alternative embodiments of tucked side wrapping elements are disclosed in European application 95114720.6.
In order to unfold the side flaps from this delivery position the user has to grab the edge of each side flap and unfold it into the basic flat position in order to place the absorbent article into the undergarment and fold the wings (against their predisposition) around the side edges of the crotch region of the undergarment.
EP-A-337438 discloses an attachment means for sanitary napkins by which resilient hinges are introduced to clamp the side edge of a wearers undergarments. This system suffers from the desire to resiliently attach the article to the crotch portion of the undergarment and hence requiring a hinge material which lacks comfort and can cause chaffing or skin irritation to the wearer.
The present invention addresses the problems of various available versions of side wrapping elements and improves their function in respect to soiling protection, convenience for the wearer, consistency of the crotch width of the article in use and maintains the comfort and non-irritation properties of the conventional side flaps.
Thus an objective of the present invention is to provide an absorbent article such as a sanitary napkin which is provided with an alternative to conventional side flaps by having a predisposition towards the in-use-position of the side flaps. It is another objective of the present invention to provide sanitary napkins with a defined crotch width after application to an undergarment independent of the various dimensions of undergarments and/or habits of wearers.
These and other objectives of the present invention will be more readily apparent when considered in reference with the following description and when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.